Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1887-06-16

I
The Ezra 81 Elsctricisy.
There Ia q story of watch being fred
from a cannon and striking an inotfensiye
pedestrian mile or two away, filling him
80 full Of wheels and springs that he felt
more like piece Of machinery than .
human being. Something akin is the
condition of the brain of the average
reader after perusing some of the current
electrical literature Of the day. The
science and application Of electricity have |
moved with Huch gigantic strides during |
the past few years as to hopslessly outrun |
the comprehension Of ordinary mortals,
and only those who have made electricity |
n speciality can hope to even keep in sight |
of the red flag on the rear car of the train. |
Others can hardly help but rise from the |
perusal Of a modern scientific publication |
without being made very much aware Of
the existence of a mental chaos in which |
dynamos, induction currents, rheostats,
storage batteries, ohms, megohms, poten-
tails, volts, amperes, motors, armatures,
solenoids and other strangely named
things are struggling for the asoendency.
But II we cannot understand all that is |
being done in this new wonderland that
Is opening out so vaguely grand before
us, and if we cannot indulge the hope of
mastering the why and the how thereof,
we eaa get some ilr1nness of footing when |
it comes down to results. And in this
department, T. Commerford Martins
paper on "a few comparative statistics of
electric railways" read before the Ameri-
can Institute of Electrical Engineers at
the annual meeting in New York last
month and reprinted, with other papers
read there and the discussion thereof, in
the June number of The Electrician and
Electrical Engineer, furnishes generous
morsel Of food for thought. Mr.. Martin
remarks in his opening that he has been
asked even by treetrailway men whether
such thing as an electric road was really
operating anywhere or not, and if such
lines were running, what the cost
Of construction and operation was.
TO these inquiries he replies in detail,
setting forth first that electric railways
certainly are in operation both at home
and abroad; in Europe, carrying passen-
gers at the rate of 5000, 900 annually,
and, in America, carrying over $500, 900,
anumber which will be at least doubled
when the roads now building in this
country are finished, to say nothing of
others for which contracts are being
placed. "As to cost, says Mr.. Martin,
''I would remark that in every instance
yet brought to notice, electricity has
spelled economy. saw recently some
authentic and extremely elaborate statis-
tics for 1879 of street railways and their
cost in New York and Brooklyn. They
were taken from the various official re-
ports. The showing for the total cost of
operation per car ranged between $s and
$40 per day at that time. The saving on
that with electricity is, according
to circumstances, at least 25 to
40 per cent with heavy traffic" Then
follows tabular statement OF the estab-
lished electric railways Of Europe and
America, the latter being headed by the
Baltimore street railway, which was con-
structed in 1885, is two miles long, single
track with turn-outs, over which six
motor cars are run at an expense of 81
per car per day and carrying 260,0
passengers yearly. The other electric
railways on the list are located at Los
Angeles, CAL, Port Huron, Mich, De-
troit, Appleton, Wis, Scranton, Pa,
Denver, Col, Montgomery, Ala, Kansas
City, Orange, N. j., and Boston. The
Montgomery road is the most important
of these, with II niles os track and rs
oars 1arryine l,noG1O0 pnsqspg=rs and
being operated, according 10 the rapport
OF its general manager, at q cost of 5Oper
cent below that of horse or mule power
II this favorable showing be not in the
long run offset by counterbalancing dis
advantages, such fc~ instance as may
attach to the use of overhead conductors
(Which are employed on all American
lines noted excepting one of the Detroit
roads which uses sunken central rail- it is
probable that few years will revolu-
tionize the familiar street.car mule out
Of existence and supply his place with
bottled lightning-not of the Jersey
variety, however. That the projectors
Of our new Riverview cemetery extension
line have decided on electricity as q
motive power and are already looking
about for the most practicable method of
applying it, is a cheering indication that
Wilmington means to keep up with the
procession. AS for the mules. plenty of
work will doubtless be found for them in
other fields.